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Creative Nurse

Patient care can be tough work that doesn’t always have a happy ending. Expressing yourself creatively can help you deal with those situations. Read on to hear from nurses who have found a way to do just that.

While art therapy is its own field, you can use the benefits of art to express your creative side and drawing skills to reduce stress and get in touch with your feelings. I think most of us knew this instinctively as kids: virtually all of us know the joys of . . .

Victor Borge, the famous Danish comedian, pianist, and conductor once said, “Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” Infusing laughter and humor into your work life is a powerful tool that can improve communication, reduce stress, foster cohesiveness, and boost overall performance and staff engagement. (See It starts with . . .

In a perfect world, we nurses would be inspired daily by our patient experiences. They would come in such abundance that overtime, computer crashes, and 10-minute meal breaks would be minor nuisances brushed off like a piece of lint on our scrubs.

If you asked nurses how they reduce job stress, you probably wouldn’t expect them to reply, “By writing.” In fact, a recent research study of nurses’ preferences for stress-relieving activities didn’t include writing as an option. Few people would choose writing to relax.

Over the course of history, people have used metaphors to explain, contrive, reflect, and refute human phenomena. Health care (and all its challenges) has stimulated prolific metaphors to find meaning in its success, but more so in its failures. Military metaphors abound. Health providers are referred to as an “army . . .

“The aim of all spiritual paths, no matter their origin or the rigors of their practice, is to help us live more fully in the lives we are given. In this way, whatever comes from a moment’s grace that joins us to our lives and to each other – this . . .

“What do you see in his eyes?” asks Dr. Rothenberg. After a brief pause, someone replies, “He looks sad.” Another states, “He’s kind of emaciated.” After directing us to look just below the left eyelid, Dr. Rothenberg asks, “Do you see a sign of a scar?” Several of us . . .

It began a long time ago
A woman walks through the dark room, with just a candle to light her way
The soldiers can sense her presence
She leans close, touches their hand, and looks in their eyes
They know—it’s the nurse—
She cares.

Nursing’s Future & Hospital Corridor by Kristina Ibitayo is clinical assistant professor at University of Texas at Arlington College of Nursing.
Nursing’s Future
The future of nursing
Lies in the past,
With lessons learned
And models overturned.

‘Twas the middle of the semester, halfway through the course
I was writing a paper and citing a source.
The washer was loaded and the dryer was on,
In hopes that the laundry soon would be gone.The kids were upstairs all comfy in bed
With no worry that mom . . .

She, the artist, had spent her younger days
in the upper rooms of McGuffey
painting watercolors of Piedmont’s rolling hills
and fields of wildflowers;
she can hardly sketch now, let alone
hold a pencil in her paralyzed hands.

For nurse graduates, starting their first staff position is an exciting time, but it can also be a time of apprehension. Many have heard stories about how some nurses “eat their young” and may wonder how readily they can acclimate to their new unit.

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